Restitution
by Trisha
Summary: Halfrek grants a wish for Buffy. Set after Older and Far Away. Spike/Buffy.


Restitution- by Trisha  
  
Summary- What if Halfrek granted a wish for Buffy? Set after Older, and Far Away. S/B, with some mention of S/Cecily.  
  
Disclaimer- All the usual. It's all Joss's. Not mine. Boo Hoo.  
  
Spoiler Warning- Speculates on the connection between Spike and Halfrek. No real spoilers since I don't know any, just speculation based on who the actress has played in the past.  
  
Rating- Nothing you wouldn't see on the show  
  
Disclaimer Number Two- I wanted this to be short, sweet, maybe even fluffy. So if it's overly fluffy, forgive me. I needed a break from the dark stuff. I took some liberties with Halfrek's personality, making her a nicer demon than she probably is.  
  
Feedback- PLEASE!  
  
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"We can't do this here," Buffy said, pushing half-heartedly at Spike's hand as it wiggled its way up her skirt. She kissed him hard, her breath panting into his mouth. "Dawn could be awake. If she sees us doing this on the front porch, she'll be pissed enough to speed dial that vengeance demon."  
  
He rubbed his hips against hers sensuously. "We could go upstairs, sneak into your bedroom. Nibblet'd never know." Running his hands up her back, he pulled her against him. His words, spoken against her ear, sounded gravelly with longing. "I've missed you, pet. We never got to..." he kissed his way down her neck, "celebrate your birthday. Alone, that is."  
  
Groaning, she forced herself to step out of his arms. He reached for her hand, but made no other move to stop her. "I have to go in," she said, regret shining in her eyes. "She might need help with her homework. Or company. Or a warden."  
  
Giving her hand a final squeeze, he nodded. "Off you go, then. If the Bit needs a mum, you go play mum. I'll wait."  
  
She flashed him a quick smile and opened the front door. Pausing on the threshold, she turned back to him and kissed him softly. "This... this is hard. Harder than I thought it'd be. Not seeing you all the time..."  
  
He rubbed his thumb over her cheekbone and across her lips. "Why not let me stay? You know the Bit likes me. She wants more attention, right? I could be here while you work, fix her supper, help with her studies. S'not like I've all that much to do during the day." He peered over her shoulder, into the living room. "The curtains'll block out the sunlight. And you've got the telly, of course. It'd be perfect."  
  
Buffy bit her lip, considering briefly. "No," she sighed finally. "No. We shouldn't even think about that. First- weird. You, me, Dawn... what, would we be a happy little family- the Slayer, the Key, and the bloodsucking Vampire? I don't think so. You could barely make it a day in this house without making jokes about eating people. Second, social services would freak if I let you move in. Even if you were human, they'd still never go for it. You don't exist, remember? What would Mrs. Kroger pull up if she typed your name into her computer?"  
  
Raising an eyebrow, Spike chuckled. "William the Bloody? I can't imagine."  
  
"Exactly." She reached out to touch his hair then, catching herself, pulled away at the last moment. "Sorry. You're nice to offer though... hey, why did you offer? You don't exactly strike me as the `picket fence' kinda guy."  
  
"Could you sound any more suspicious?" Frowning, he walked away from her, down the steps. "I just thought..."  
  
"What?" She stared at him, frustrated. "You thought what?"  
  
"Slayer," he said, throwing up his arms. "If you don't get it by now, maybe you never will." He threw her a last, disappointed look, then strode away.  
  
She watched him from the doorway until he disappeared into the darkness. "Great," she muttered, stepping inside and closing the door. "The one real solution to all my Dawn problems would *have* to come wrapped in an almost-200 year old corpse. This is *so* my life."  
  
A knock sounded at the door, startling her. Surprised, she opened it. "Spike, I told you, not tonight.... oh. You're not Spike. And since when do vengeance demons knock? Anya didn't learn that one for years."  
  
Halfrek stood on the porch, her demon face on. "Yes, well, Anyanka is much older than I am- shows, doesn't it? Especially around her eyes? She's well over a thousand, while I'm not even two hundred yet. A baby, really. There are many human traits I've never lost."  
  
"Tell me Dawn didn't make another wish," Buffy said, casting a nervous glance up the stairs. "She's in her room, supposedly doing her homework, but if she's summoning demons up there instead, I swear I'll ground her this time."  
  
"No, no," Halfrek said, sweeping into the living room. She gave the cheap furniture and left-out dinner plates a haughty glance before sitting on the edge of the couch and patting the cushion beside her. "No, no, don't worry. Dawn already spent her wish, she doesn't get two. I'm here on a... on a more personal matter."  
  
"A personal matter? You have a personal matter with me?" Buffy sat warily beside the demon, keeping her chest of weapons in sight.  
  
"Yes, I'm afraid so. I've made a rather large mistake. Anya told me everything about you, and why I shouldn't have granted Dawn's wish so hastily. I'm here to make restitution for the whole affair."  
  
"Umm... that's okay. Really, we... we forgive you. Dawn's happier now, so it wasn't all bad. Except the whole demon-trying-to-kill-us part. But hey, we're used to that." She stood and gestured towards the front door. "So, don't you want to be going, now that you're forgiven?"  
  
"It's not that simple. I am a Justice Demon, no matter what Anyanka will tell you. If I make an unjust wish, it doesn't bode well for me with Ta'hoffren. You saw what he did to Anya when she displeased him," she said with a shudder. "*Human*, and powerless, after all the years of dedicated work she'd given him. Talk about an injustice. Anyways, when I granted Dawn's wish, I didn't take into account several important issues. First of all, there's the fact that you'd been dead for several months. Had Dawn told me that, I would've simply had her call for me in another year, after you'd had more time to adjust."  
  
"Funny how she's not in the habit of telling perfect strangers that her sister's back from the dead."  
  
Halfrek nodded. "Of course, of course, I don't blame the girl. Though she did waste my time. If it wasn't for her, I'd never have run into... well, this brings us to the second issue. William."  
  
Buffy coughed, surprised. "William?"  
  
"Oh yes, Anyanka tells me he goes by Spike now. Of all the terrible things he could call himself! Imagine William choosing something so coarse! It's not like him, not like him in the slightest."  
  
Leaning back into the couch, Buffy laughed. "Not like him? You obviously haven't known him long. It's exactly like him."  
  
"To think he'd name himself after his own ghastly murder weapon. It's almost unbelievable."  
  
Buffy wrinkled her forehead. "You know about that?"  
  
"Certainly, my dear. I was there, after all. To see him now... well, I scarcely recognized him. Without his glasses, and with that terrible hair... and carrying weapons instead of poetry books! A few dozen decades have made quite a difference on him."  
  
"Poetry books? Spike carried poetry books?" Buffy burst out laughing. "Oh, wow. Too bad you didn't show up before he left. I would've loved to see the look on his face. When he hears you're telling people he was a... a..."  
  
"He was elegant. Refined. And a complete idiot," she said, fanning herself. "Following me around all over London, writing his ridiculous sonnets... I can't tell you the level of humiliation he put me through! And then, to all but propose to me, and at a party no less!"  
  
"Ohh..." Buffy said, sobering. "You're Cecily."  
  
"He told you about me, did he?"  
  
She folded her hands into her lap. "Yep. Once. Before we... before we were..."  
  
"Oh, I know you're lovers." She smiled, catching Buffy's horrified look. "No, no, Anyanka doesn't know, though I can't imagine how she's missed it. The vibes between you two... let's just say, you don't always need circulation to blush."  
  
"So, what? You've come to apologize because I was dead and because I'm sleeping with your ex-stalker?"  
  
"I wasn't very kind to William, back in London. His... condition... occurred directly after my most heated rejection, and I must admit to bearing some guilt over that. Perhaps... if I'd been more gentle in refusing him... perhaps he'd have lived a mortal life. I can't grant a wish for a vampire, that's against the rules. But there's no rule to keep me from helping him by helping his lover."  
  
"Let's get to the point here. Dawn's waiting for me upstairs." She crossed her legs, annoyed with herself. To be angry at Halfrek- or Cecily, rather- for breaking human Spike's heart over a century before... but not jealous, she told herself firmly. Not even a bit jealous. Really. Just because he let himself be turned into a vampire over his rejection by this girl... nope, still not jealous.  
  
"I owe you a wish," Halfrek said simply. "A wish of restitution."  
  
"Umm... I don't think so. I mean, don't you deal with angry kids? I am neither kidlike nor..." she broke off, flustered.  
  
"But you are angry. And you're not a child, that's true, but exceptions can be made in extreme circumstances."  
  
"I don't want a wish. Last time someone messed with wishes in my life, I got locked into my house with a homicidal demon. The time before that, I was making wedding plans with my mortal enemy and scoping out seeing-eye dogs for my Watcher. Thanks, but no thanks."  
  
Halfrek stood, her lips pursed. "You work at a horrible job for terrible wages. You're raising an extremely complicated teenager, though you're not much older than a child yourself, and you've nearly lost her more times than you can count. Your Watcher has abandoned you. Your best friends are busy with marriage and magical addiction, respectively, and can't understand why you're not the same girl you were before your death. You have a lover you can't fully accept because he's a vampire. Both of you are miserable, caught between worlds, knowing there's no where you fit in. He's lonely, and depressed. You're too tired, too thin, too pale, and in obvious need of therapy for your post-resurrection issues. And you say you can't use a wish?"  
  
Buffy closed her eyes. "When you put it like that..."  
  
"Oh dear," Halfrek said, sitting beside her and patting her on the knee. "I am sorry. That was rather blunt, wasn't it?"  
  
"Yeah, it was," Buffy said, covering her face with her hands. "But it worked. I have a wish you can grant. For me, and for Spike."  
  
"Oh?" she said, leaning closer and fingering her pendant. "What would that be?"  
  
"I wish Spike was alive."  
  
"Done," said Halfrek with a nod and a satisfied grin. "Well wished, my dear."  
  
******************  
  
"Thump... thump... thump..."  
  
Spike stirred in his bed, annoyed at the noise. He covered his ears with a pillow, but it only made the sound louder. "Where the bloody hell is that coming from?" he growled, listening.  
  
"Thump... thump... thump..."  
  
He swung out of bed and pulled on his jeans. Something was wrong. That noise... was there someone in his crypt? But then, what was that feeling... that warm, wet feeling... like blood running through him...  
  
"Oh, God." Spike said, staring down at his body. That thumping was coming from inside of him! From his heart! "I have a heartbeat." He flicked his fingers over his neck. "And a pulse. And I'm breathing. Really breathing."  
  
He dropped to his knees in shock, his fingers still holding onto his jugular pulse. "Oh God," he whispered, utter disbelief choking his words. "I'm... I'm a sodding human being!"  
  
******************  
  
Buffy sat on her living room couch long after Halfrek left, looking through the papers she'd wished into existence. Everything Spike needs to be officially alive again, she thought, rifling through the box full of social security information, employment histories, identification, a passport, even a high school yearbook. She studied his driver's license, noting his new date of birth. Twenty-eight years old, she thought, or one hundred and twenty-eight. Not much of a difference... right?  
  
When her front door flew open, she didn't move, knowing it was Spike. She'd been waiting for him to come to her, waiting with nerves so raw, it amazed her she could sit still. He staggered into the doorway, and she jolted at the sight of his flushed cheeks.  
  
"Circulation suits you," she said quietly, examining him. "Otherwise, you look the same."  
  
He gaped at her. "You... you did do this, then."  
  
She stood, letting the pile of papers on her lap flutter to the floor. Bending over, she grabbed his driver's license and handed it to him. "Look, Spike. You're a person. Complete with bad DMV picture and everything. I... I hope the last name's okay. I didn't know... and Cecil... I mean, Halfrek couldn't remember."  
  
"William Summers," he read, raising an eyebrow at her. "And I live here? Who am I suppose to be then, pet?"  
  
"Well, I couldn't exactly have her use the address for your crypt, okay? I wanted to put Spike down as your official name, but Halfrek wouldn't go for it. And if you have the same last name as Dawn, social services will believe you're a... a cousin. Or something. If you still want to stay here. On the couch."  
  
She ran her hands through her hair, trying to pretend they weren't trembling. "You're still free... I mean, you can do whatever you want. You can even go get re-vamped, if you hate being human. I... I wont stop you. But this way, you at least have a chance. We... we have a chance. Together."  
  
Pushing away the papers, Spike stretched out on the couch. "It's a good couch," he said, holding his hand out to her. He pulled her down onto his lap and held her tightly against his chest. "And a good name. Where's the Nibblet?"  
  
"She's still asleep," Buffy said, listening with awe to the sound of his heart beating.  
  
"Kiss me then, love," he said, smirking at her mischievously. "There's a job to be done. William Summers is still a virgin, you know. Can't have that, now can we?"  
  
"Oh no," she said, nuzzling his mouth with hers. "Anything but that."  
  
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